Ancient Voices
by Hawthorn Tree
Summary: Never once did it cross any of our minds that one day we might fall. We thought ourselves immortal, and for that we were foolish. Empires rise and fall, but friendship lasts. If only we realized that before it was too late. We stood next to eachother in love, laughter, rebellion, and heartbreak. But in the end we all stabbed eachother in the backs. GermaniaxOC RomexGreece OC's
1. Prologue

"_Heaven's gift to me, just the way you are. A new age child, from a distant star…"_

We fought nonstop when we were young. We thought it made sense, that it was our destiny to be the greatest empire on Earth. In truth we were simply too proud to give up our chances of being able to look down at the rest and say "I am in charge, and you will obey me". Our pride blinded us, and it was our pride that brought about our downfall.

"_It feels so good just to be, so close to your love."_

That is a fate I would never wish upon you, my son. You have other siblings, but you are the one that will inherit what is mine. Your brothers and sister will receive the mainland from your father, but you are my heir and I pray that the separating waters will be enough to protect you from the wars that will doubtlessly ravage the continent.

"_You are Heaven's gift to me."_

My son, please do not follow in my footsteps, or in those of your father's. I have already lost my husband and one child to the wars. Most of the others are gone, taken by either the sword or the slow decay of time. My brothers are gone, my friends are gone; the world is changing. Even those who I once considered little more than children have passed.

"_You are so sweet and pure, just the way you are."_

I have given you a place to grow and learn a place to expand your knowledge. Sometimes I think that my youngest brother's policy was smartest. He was that small island that nobody wanted, and it served him well. His lands are untouched, despite his passing.

"_Mama's precious jewel, Daddy's rising star."_

I love you more than I can possibly say, and it grieves that I will be unable to watch you grow to your true potential. Your father loved you as well, no matter what you might think. He was losing power and the will to live by the time you came to be. He was a proud, stubborn man and I loved him for it. You look so much like him, little one.

"_There is so much in life, for you to see. And so much to be,"_

The world is vast and amazing. Our home is green, but also rather cold and can be very gloomy. Yet I missed so much when I was wrenched away from it.

"_You are Heaven's gift to me."_

**There will be a lot of OC's in this story, since there are a lot more Ancients than mentioned in Hetalia. Among them will be Britannia, Goth, Scandinavia, Iberia, Baltia, Caledonia, and several others since the list keeps growing for some odd reason. Whose point of view this chapter is told from will be relieved later, as well as who see was talking to. There will be no yaoi in this story, so if that's what you came for, I'm sorry. Please give it a try anyway.**_  
_

**Another point of interest is that as much as I will try to make this story follow the timeline, there will be a lot of historical inaccuracy.**

**The song in italics is "Wiccan Lullaby" by Bette Milder, if I'm not mistake. You can find it on YouTube, if you so desire.**


	2. Chapter 1

Graecia – Althea  
Rome – Romulus  
Gaul – Jean  
Germania – Alderick  
Aeghyptus – Isis  
Britannia – Edith

Graecia looked up in surprise when a soldier came in and announced that Rome would be returning any moment now. Rome had been on a campaign in Britannia and if he was announcing his arrival before hand, then he had been successful. Someone else would be joining the ranks of those conquered by Rome.

Sharing a look with Gaul, she pushed herself up from the chair and headed towards the courtyard where they met up with Germania, who was brooding as usual. Together the three Conquered stood and waited for their conqueror to arrive with his newest addition.

Technically Aeghyptus should have been with them, but for some reason Romulus trusted Isis more than either of the two tribes, and then he just wanted to keep his wife around, despite her obvious dislike for the empire.

"What do you think Britannia will be like?" Graecia ventured to ask the two tribes next to her.  
Alderick grunted and shrugged, not at all wanting to strike up a conversation with the southern country. It was actually Gaul who answered, despite her tendency to ignore the others.

"Edith's… interesting. When she's in a mood, she looks Germania here look tame, yet she's got more motherly instinct than any woman I know," Gaul paused and glance at Althea nervously, "No offense."

Before Graecia could respond though, Rome rode into the courtyard in all his glory. Immediately Germania and Gaul tensed while Graecia stepped forward to great her husband. Rome leapt off his horse and swept the woman into his arms, planting a kiss on her unwilling lips.

"I have missed you," he whispered to her is Greek before loudly greeting the two unmoving tribes.  
"Whose life did you ruin this time, Rome?" Gaul asked with a mocking smile.

Romulus grinned back, "It's good to see you too, Gaul. Can I be expecting yet another rebellion anytime soon?"  
"Answer the question, Roman. Who did you drag back with you?" Gaul snapped.  
"Straight to the point as usual," Rome sighed, "Alderick, Jean, Althea, may I present Britannia. Be careful, she bites."

As he said that, two Roman soldiers rode forward on their horses, dragging a young woman with them. Her hands were tied in front of her, while the ends of the ropes were firmly grasped by the soldiers, who both looked rather nervous.

Piercing green eyes glared at them from behind a wild curtain of dark brown hair. Standing up straight, she flicked her hair behind her shoulder, revealing a dirt streaked face with high cheekbones and what appeared to be war paint hidden beneath all the dirt. She was dressed in form fitting leather armor with a dark green cloak wrapped around her shoulders. She calmly looked around, noting each person in the courtyard. Next to Germania, Gaul tensed and her hand instinctively reached for the sword that once hung at her hip.

Britannia's eyes came to a stop on Gaul and a smirk flashed across her face. Then the woman yanked hard on her bonds, pulling the two soldiers off of theirs horses easily while Gaul elbowed the nearest soldier and took his sword.

The blonde woman quickly made her towards Britannia, slicing through the other woman's bonds with her acquired sword. Britannia then acquired a spear from one of the soldiers she had taken down, as well as a knife that she tucked into her boot.

The two women then continued to dispatch of any soldier that came to close, Gaul with her sword while Britannia used the spear like a staff. After twelve soldiers, Rome finally decided to step in with Germania. Grabbing Gaul's wrist, he forced her to turn around and drop the sword. One broken wrist later, Gaul had been subdued and was angrily nursing her wrist by Graecia.

Germania was having much more trouble though, having never fought someone like Britannia. He had tried to pin her arms behind her back and had received nothing good in return. She had winded him, stomped on his foot, broken his nose, and slammed her elbow where it hurts. Needless to say, he had doubled over in pain long before she had hit him on the head with a shield.

Rome grabbed her arm, only to have his bitten. Jerking back with a yelp of pain (she had already bitten the same spot twice over the last few months), he released her and was wacked in the head with the same shield that had taken down Germania.

By now Germania was back up and grabbed her from around her waist, pinning her to him so that she couldn't use her elbows in any less than appreciated ways. He held her close until she stopped struggling,  
"Are you done?" he whispered in Celtic.

She shuttered before snapping back, "For now."


	3. Chapter 2

Britannia – Edith  
Rome – Romulus  
Germania – Alderick  
Gaul – Jean  
Graecia – Althea  
Iberia – Tierra (literally means "land")  
Byzantine/Eastern Rome – Remus

Once Britannia had calmed down, she was dragged away by several Roman soldiers. Rome himself straightened up, holding his gut in pain. Germania calmly walked over to him and raised a skeptical eyebrow,  
"She fights well," he calmly commented and Romulus smiled tightly in return,  
"You should see her on her own territory," was his reply, "There's a reason it's taken me nearly a century to conquer her."

"Perhaps you are losing your touch, my friend," Germania suggested with the barest hint of a smile.  
"Me? Never," Romulus declared, "Now…"he turned and looked at Gaul and Graecia before furrowing his brow, "Where the Hades is Iberia?" shared a look, realizing for the first time that the peninsula nation wasn't with them. Not that she usually was; Iberia had a tendency to "get lost". Unlike Gaul, Iberia didn't openly rebel. She just made herself a pain.

It was at that moment that Byzantine chose to approach them and instantly Rome was distracted,  
"You know brother, I couldn't help but notice that it wasn't you that helped me when I needed it," he good-naturedly accused the Eastern half of his empire.  
Remus shrugged uncaringly, "Why would I wish to start looking like you? Besides, Alderick had everything under control."

That was when Althea noticed her husband was covered in scratch and bite marks, none of them made with loving intent.  
"You mean _she_ did that," Graecia asked, her respect for the island she had just met mounting.  
"These and a lot more," Romulus confirmed as he subconsciously rubbed a large (and slightly infected) bite mark on his neck, "Let's just say she didn't appreciate my advances."

"So you've found another lover?" Althea demanded, miffed at her husband's promiscuousness.  
Romulus started shaking his head almost instantly, "No, no, no, no, no. Believe me, Britannia is the last person I want to bed. And I'm fairly certain that she shares my sentiment. Now I just need to get her to cooperate with me and we'll have another tribesman running around, only this one will be female."

"Good luck," Gaul mumbled, joining the conversation for the first time.  
Rome then turned his attention to her and she realized her mistake, "And then there's you, Gaul. You just can't except defeat, can you?"

"You did ask for a rebellion," Gaul shot back.  
"I wasn't meaning literally," Rome snapped, not finding her amusing in the slightest. He grabbed her still broken wrist, which still had yet to heal completely, and dragged her into his home,  
"Clearly we need to have a "talk"," Rome told her, "And for the love of Jupiter, someone find Iberia!"

Once Rome was gone, Althea and Alderick went their separate ways, intend on going back to their previous activities. Remus looked around the courtyard, taking note of the soldiers tending to their comrades, before raising his eyes to look at the roof of the surrounding building.

Almost immediately his eyes fell upon the lithe shape of Iberia, who had been observing the events from above. Noticing he was looking her way, the mocha skinned young woman gracefully stood from her cross legged position and slipped on the roof into the garden behind it. Remus smiled softly before following from below.

Arriving in the garden she had slipped into, he found the ever-elusive Iberia, renamed Hispania by Rome, calmly inspecting some flowers.  
"You know," he started, "One would think that after so many decades you would be able to find the courtyard whenever we return."

Tierra shrugged,  
"The servants must have forgotten to tell me."  
"Or you saw them coming and chose to make yourself near impossible to find," Remus suggested gently as he sat down next to her and idly began playing with a lock of her hair.  
"I am quite certain that if they had looked harder they would have found me," the Hispanic informed him nonchalantly. Their conversation lapsed into silence as she placed her head on his shoulder, perfectly content to sit there in silence. At least, she was until she got a good whiff of him.

Immediately Iberia shot away, and Byzantine jumped in surprise,  
"What is it?" he asked, expecting his brother to charge in and start shouting at them.  
"Remus? Can you do me a favor?" she asked gently.  
Still confused, Remus nodded,  
"Of course."  
"Take a bath."

**Sorry it took me so long and that it was so short, but this is going to be a back-burner story. There's going to be updates, but they're going to be a bit farther spaced than with my other stories. I'm so sorry to anyone that doesn't like that, please don't kill me!**

**On another note, aren't Remus and Tierra so cute together?**


End file.
